Lithuanian Folk tale: Why the Sun shines in the day and the Moon shines at night-compiled and edited by Stepas Zobarskas

 

In olden times, when no human beings existed in the world, the Moon and the Sun lived in a pretty little house. They fell in love with each other and got married. When a daughter was born to them they named her Earth.

For many years the Moon and the Sun lived happily and in peace, but one day they began to quarrel.

"If you're so hot, I shall leave you forever," said the Moon.

"And if you remain as cold as you are now, I will not live with you any longer", answered the Sun.

"Alright. Let us seperate. But the daughter shall remain with me", said the Moon.

"No. I'm not going to leave my daughter with you. What, do you want my daughter to freeze to death with you?", Argued the Sun.

As they could not reach an agreement on who should keep the daughter, they went to the great God Thunder and asked him to be their judge. Thunder listened to both of them, then he reached a decision:

"Let it be this way: the Sun takes care of her daughter from morning till evening, and the Moon during the night."

To this day they obey Thunder's decision. The Sun takes care of the Earth from morning till evening and the Moon looks after it from evening till morning. Once in a great while, when the Moon has no time, her sisters, the Stars, give light to the earth.